Observer

This is not the case on longer cruises. Casual nights can be sprinkled throughout the cruise. They are not as frequent as informal nights and generally occur when a ship is in port until late in the evening.

This outrage regarding jeans is remarkable. There are some very high end, very expensive jeans from widely recognized designers. Why should they be frowned upon so?

You are most welcome. Did you happen to test my assertion by looking on my.silversea to see if any excursions were available for your 2025 booking?

The Navigator is a wonderful, smaller, older ship. I would gladly sail it again if the itineraries were right. Find yourself a good travel agent who specializes in cruiselines like SS and Regent. They can answer your questions and provide nice perks for your business. The Internet is your friend here in finding someone.

In a recent development, excursions are open on my.silversea immediately upon booking.

If you embark on the cruise with expectations of anything like Crystal, you will be disappointed. But if your needs/wants are more modest and if you can amuse yourself with a good book or a movie in addition to lectures, competitions, in conversation with new friends, you will have a fine time.

The suite attendant's functions are quite different from those of the butler. The suite attendant does not deal with food or drink. S/he works very hard making the beds, changing the linen, vacuuming the suite, cleaning the bathroom, washing the door to the veranda, etc. Ideally, the suite attendant and the butler are a team who work well together.

The butler's work is often largely invisible. S/he will often service the suite when the guests are away at meals or ashore. S/he dusts, replenishes the fridge with water and other beverages, tidies up the room, etc. Other services (such as delivering breakfast and/or coffee, refreshing the fresh fruit, collecting and delivering laundry, making reservations at restaurants that require them, delivering canapés at cocktail time, etc.) are on request. The core functions are often invisible. Other services need to be requested.

I really do not understand why Silversea feels the need to offer so many inclusions. I rarely take excursions offered by the ship. I prefer to explore independently, and I resent paying for these excursions. I would assume the most guests are experienced travelers and have established methods of getting from home to the airport and vice versa. Why does Silversea feel the need to offer this transport to everyone?

I will not use Blacklane in the US. The problem is that the company does not have its own cars but rather subcontracts the rides to other limo companies. Let's say my Blacklane ride is contracted to Acme Limo. Acme has some long-standing customers who book directly with Acme. And then they take orders from Blacklane to pick up the slack. Let's say there is a big snowstorm in Minneapolis and there are many delays at the airport. The regular Acme customer was supposed to arrive at 8 PM. My Blacklane ride was scheduled for a pick up at 10:30 PM. The regular Acme customer in fact arrives at 9:50 PM and is met by the Acme car. I arrive on time and there is no car for me. They are not going to diss a long-standing, regular customer. So they cannot do my scheduled Blacklane run.

I share your skepticism about Blacklane and will post a separate message below. But the scenario that you outlined above is not likely to occur, according to my understanding of the program. The program does not have a Blacklane limo meeting guests at the ship. I believe that the limo transport is from the guest's home airport to the guest's home. So the demand will be distributed among airports around Europe (possibly around the world.)

On another social media site it was asserted that lunch was not available in Atlantide. If true, this is very disappointing, particularly for guests with limited mobility who cannot comfortably navigate the buffet in LaTerrazza and who may be averse to eating at the Grill. I would be grateful for current information on this matter. TIA.

And why is that? Why can this decision not be made earlier? Decisions about what ports to visit, the times of the visits, the provisioning for the ships, etc., etc. are made long in advance. If they can make dress code decisions two weeks advance for 14 night cruises (the list is provided in the Chronicle available on embarkation) why can't they be made earlier? Obviously, there may be changes if the ship is in very stormy weather, etc. But this is a bit of information that guests reasonably want to have while making restaurant reservations.

They could follow the example of Viking Ocean and forbid children under a certain age. 18 (the Viking age minimum) may be too severe. But 12 might be reasonable.

This is an entirely reasonable desire, and one that I have as well. Try as I might, I cannot understand why this information cannot be provided in advance of the cruise.

The butler serves dinner if it is taken in the suite. My understanding/recollection is that at dinner time one can order from the Restaurant/Atlantide menu in addition to the room service menu. The galley for room service is close to the main gallery for the MDR, with access to the same service corridor/lift, etc. Things would get much more complicated if one was ordering from other restaurants on other decks with other access to service lifts. As ever, I may be mistaken and would be pleased to be corrected/edified.

One would think this would be the case, and it may well be. However, when I asked for some applesauce to accompany a pork chop, I was told that they would gladly make some for me. The implication was that they would not just be opening a can or jar.

It is worth noting that the room service menu is quite large and varied. Includes not only soups, sandwiches and salads but also steaks and salmon and pasta and pizza and fruit plates and several nice desserts.

I believe this is true. There was some discussion recently of Silversea's chartering one or more airplanes in Scandinavia in response to the strike of SAS pilots. I imagine that TAs earn commission on everything in the package, including the cruise, flights, etc. In fact, I had heard that one of the reasons that Silversea included tours in the cruise fare was the TAs would earn commissions om a higher cruise fare as they did not when tours were purchased on board. However, this may be a mere urban legend.

There is. On the landing page for each cruise, there is a banner showing the things included in the cruise fare, like private executive transfers, economy class flights, etc. If you click on a category, more detail is provided. With the transfers and flights, information is provided as to what discount is offered if one does not use this amenity. At random, I checked a cruise that was Hong Kong round-trip. There was a $100 saving per passenger for not using the transfer to the home airport and a $1500 per passenger discount for not using the air. This was all on the US site for Silversea.

On all bookings one can remove flights and limo transfers, receiving discounts for each. So it's a step toward PtP. On a recent booking I got a $600 discount for not using these (this was for a departure from US port. Foreign ports will yield larger discounts.)

I swear by my Silversea cruise consultant after having bad experiences dealing with several different TAs. The worst experience with a TA was when s/he mishandled arrangements and sent me the agency invoice (with evidence of the ~ 20% TA commission paid by the cruise line) rather than the passenger invoice.

This is a remarkable thread. But I do not believe that there has been sufficient discussion of the ontology of jeans. What is/are jeans? Must they be blue? Must they have metal studs at the pockets? Etc.

Shorts and jeans are perfectly appropriate in Atlantide at breakfast and lunch. I have many hundreds of nights on Silversea and can recall only one instance in which shorts were permitted in the MDR during dinner. In that case, it was embarkation day and the guest's luggage had been misdirected by the airline and was scheduled to be delivered to the ship after dinner but before departure. Seeing this gentleman's knees did not significantly affect my dinner.

I do not believe this is correct. Informal nights mean that in most outlets men are to wear jackets, but neckties are not required. According to my understanding, on formal nights a jacket but not necessarily a necktie is required in La Terrazza.